"I agree and disagree
With my elder brother
Who murmurs that Tojo is great after all"

But they have made tons of movies about the war. And after all, such contradictory thing as "war crimes", I believe, couldn't be a real reason. Also, the only nation in the world who used nuclear weapon running war crimes trials looks like a bad joke. Ah, I forgotten, there is a second country, USSR - they have used tactical bomb during maneuvers where 50.000 of their soldiers were taking part.

The point that general anime addicts/watchers are uninterested looks true, but still... these people would watch ANYTHING - space mecha battles, fantasy adventures, action/show of nearby any kind, if it is drawn/done well. So, why the industry never tried even to make a "default" anime about the war?

Anime industry in Japan is heavily reliant on cheaper services from Korean and Chinese contractors. Recently they have started using SouthEastern Asian companies, but as you can see in the article, Japan's WWII history is problem for those countries as well.

Not only that, it is very hard for any anime series to be profitable without good amount of revenue generated from Korea and China. Unlike movies which is well contained within Japan, both production and consumption wise, anime just can't ignore the sentiment from China and Korea, thus they tend to tread lightly when it comes to anything that deals with first half of 20th century.

A sad example of this is Hetalia. Because the anime producers failed to inform Koreans about the entire nature of the series as well as the decision to leave Korea out of the animated series when they first announced its production, it faced enormous backlashes from political opportunists in Korea, which likely had resulted in at least 10%, if not 20% or more, decrease in total revenue.

I do need to add that even this 'well intentioned' article misses the prime reason behind the fury, the seeming refusal of Japan to apologize to Asian countries in manner that is similar to German apology to neighboring nations and Jews.

In end I believe the emotions sparked by Japan's WW2 deeds and perception of Japan being uncontrite has hurt Japan, economically, as well as making them uneasy to ask their Korean subcontractors to work on anime that deals with events in 20th century.